Washington D.C. — On May 21, 2026, Strickland delivered her opening remarks for the Build America 250 Act, the Committee’s bipartisan, five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill. Strickland’s remarks are transcribed and can be found here.
Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland: Thank you Chairman Graves and Ranking Member Larsen. I support advancing this bipartisan transportation bill that improves safety, delivers jobs, grows local economies, and meets the transportation and infrastructure needs of communities in Washington state, the 10th congressional district, and across the country. This bill will maintain funding levels set in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for Highways and Transit. It safeguards critical programs that communities and cities of all sizes and regional economies that rely on delivering transportation projects and it preserves the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program. Democrats have only one third of the committee staff to support this work, yet we secured well over a third of the wins in the bill. So thank you to Ranking Member Larsen and Chairman Graves for always working in a bipartisan manner. This is a testament to your strong leadership, your resolve, and your effectiveness.
I’m proud to have authored provisions in the bill to reduce congestion and wear and tear on roads, while enabling greater transportation choice and affordability. Many communities cannot afford all the road capacity and improvement projects that they need and even if we pass this bill, we know that the needs of all of our communities will still not be fully met. Construction materials and fuel costs are only increasing. This bill enables communities to use federal dollars for transportation demand management solutions through the rural and urban Surface Transportation Accelerator Grant, the STAG program. This will help communities find cost savings, focus on resources on projects that necessitate new construction, and expedite transportation network improvements.
I’m also pleased to have secured provisions to support metropolitan planning organizations, which are essential partners to help local communities develop and deliver federal aid transportation projects. These provisions will provide greater flexibility and support for administrative and planning activities to carry out that work more efficiently and more effectively.
I also secured provisions from the Build More Housing Near Transit Act, which I co-led in the last Congress to solve supply side housing challenges and encourage the development of transit-served walkable communities. Coupled with the 21st century housing bill that we passed yesterday, this is essential.
And for Washington state, this bill delivers continued investments in the fleet expansion and modernization of the Washington State ferry system and the jobs that support them. The development of Cascadia High Speed Rail, $1 billion for court mandated culvert replacement and rehabilitation, and a 25% set aside in the Bridge Formula Program to help repair locally owned bridges.
At a time when tariffs and skyrocketing fuel costs are driving up the cost of building infrastructure, we must continue to give our communities certainty, job security and the support they need to sustain and grow their economies. Investing in infrastructure has a high return on investment. It is money well spent. I strongly urge my colleagues to support this bill and Mr. Chair, I yield back.
###